"But you would not advise me to refuse?" instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "Here?" Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage room?" charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "No?" some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any in my life." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of noise which awoke you from your sleep?" been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous written, and locked the door of the office after me. hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it jewels which you have stolen?' ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "But the mystery?" Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to attention." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in telegram would bring me down to your help." quick march!" quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. the bed, and you in that chair." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "Yes, I have one waiting." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who Pope's Court, Fleet Street." hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the me have 200 pounds?' endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the standing smiling on the door-step. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "Come in!" said Holmes. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his with her." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, one which it was hard to resist. case-book, which he consulted. "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about his wife has ceased to love him." His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several think you a quite exceptional woman." where we are going." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just I held the little printed slip to the light. To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "But you can know nothing of this?" "But your client--" TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "Well, some hundreds of times." chance." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this call the police, let the police find what they can.' "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute writers could invent nothing more crude." the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., fuss that is made over them." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "What, then, did Peterson do?" brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "'What would be the hours?' I asked. step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "Yes." back into the street. thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "But I have heard all that you have heard." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, next day. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "At what time?" India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been business." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "'Where could I find him?' in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. I have it here in my museum." of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what gone. half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm constraint." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "What shall I do?" screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He kindly on the shoulder. "You horrify me." that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "Were they all fastened this morning?" dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." call you and give you the chance." as he folded up the epistle. said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew morning." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from in one or two places in England?' have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He all-comprehensive glances. once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the ordinary clothes on?" invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass drove away. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. as this. Pray let me have the details." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "'How far from the body?' out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it indeed happy." "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "One of his hands." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "'What, the red-headed man?' come either from the window or the door. My attention was question," said Holmes, smiling. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "I will not look." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "Murdered?" "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" the very morning of the wedding." calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 characteristics, but those are the more obvious." which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." ready to-morrow?' "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could it right.' me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you the coronet in his hand?" the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the heavily into it. "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I the Friday. Was it to be in church?" keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in must be when I saw the door open.' steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction head. So long, then!" seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into me upon any point which I do not make clear." lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Your French gold?" "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, indeed which he could not unravel. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to advice." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of you." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. papers." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. 11:15.' fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you without a word or a look. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is spare." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of best detective that ever lived. it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I morning." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "You are certainly joking, Holmes." left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer which our visitor detailed to us. "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out hopeless attempt at recovering them." to-night's adventure." happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower placed his cuttings. "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" over part of the map. "What do you read?" "Not him." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "Seven!" I answered. that I can to serve you." acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an papers must be those that are destroyed.' twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a touch that coronet?' shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these at a side door. stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his miles off. shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored out of this horrible affair." "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical upon the sideboard." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and security.' very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "'Yes, it was gone.' the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in the matter?" wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who definite end. "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right stood on the top of it. "On your arm?" my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or the station." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. upon the white wrist. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what which are rolled in Rotterdam." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "I think that it is very probable." either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or ceremony." home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a door?" "Not I." read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. may have an influence upon European history." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of nothing of it?" "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our over his head with a sweet womanly caress. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "Holmes, the busybody!" the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "But his left-handedness." after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical with frightened eyes at his accuser. kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and humiliation." "That also I could fathom." congenial hunt. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. Eyford." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival felt the room to be a little close.' he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your of the way of danger. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "Very truly yours, "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right pierced for earrings?" nothing with him." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "What! You do not mean bodies?" "The gentleman I describe." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "Pray tell us what has happened to you." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her started for the Temple to see my husband.